A former Jewish Defense League activist extradited from Israel in July was convicted here Thursday of complicity in the 1980 bomb death of a secretary at a Manhattan Beach computer company. A federal jury deliberated for less than three hours before finding Robert Manning, 41, guilty of mailing the explosive device that killed 32-year-old Patricia Wilkerson.

Two high school students who allegedly filled a notebook with threatening notes, names and plans to build a crude bomb face criminal charges as well as expulsion from their Long Beach school. The two Long Beach students, sophomores at Robert A. Millikan High School, appeared in Juvenile Court on Monday and pleaded innocent to charges of making terrorist threats.

Two teenagers were arrested in a wealthy Rancho Palos Verdes neighborhood Tuesday morning in connection with a series of pipe bomb blasts over the past six weeks that have destroyed four mailboxes, a guard shack and a car on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Sheriff's deputies are seeking one more adult connected to the blasts, said Det. Don Powell of the sheriff's arson and explosives unit.

Two "dry-ice bombs" placed beneath a pickup truck in a parking lot exploded when they were kicked out from under it, but did no harm, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said Friday. The bomb squad is investigating the incident which occurred about 10:15 p.m. Thursday in the parking lot of a Hughes supermarket on Bouquet Canyon Road in Saugus. "It sounded like a car backfiring, only much louder," said Shannon Bohte(CQ), a service manager at Hughes.

Murder charges were filed Tuesday against a fugitive parolee being sought in the killing of Lynn Standish, the Pearblossom woman who died last month in an explosion that also seriously injured her young son. Scott Douglas Hamby, 31, has been charged with murder with the special circumstance of death by an explosive device, which means if convicted he could face the death penalty, authorities said.

A man who claimed he was a physicist was arrested by campus police at Cal Poly Pomona early Wednesday after he was seen loitering around a building where a pipe bomb went off a day earlier, authorities said. Michael Joel Whitney, 35, of Moreno Valley in Riverside County, was wearing jeans, a sport coat and carrying two 12-inch daggers in scabbards around his waist when arrested.

Thirteen years after a letter bomb exploded in a Manhattan Beach computer company and killed a secretary, a former Jewish Defense League activist who waged a bitter two-year battle against extradition from Israel was brought into a Los Angeles federal courtroom Monday to face charges in the case.

A Glendale man was injured Saturday when a small bomb exploded in his car as he drove along the street in front of his residence, authorities said. The 1974 Dodge was parked in front of Vahe Artinian's home in the 100 block of S. Everett Street, police said. At 10:20 a.m., Artinian, 29, got into the car and drove about half a block when the bomb exploded. Artinian suffered shrapnel wounds to his legs, arms and hands, Glendale Police Sgt. Karl Ward said.

Robert Steven Manning demonstrated years ago that he would stand up, in dramatic ways, to support a cause. One night at a Los Angeles pool hall, six men who had been drinking accosted a female patron. Manning took charge, wading into the crowd, grabbing a cue stick and snapping it in half. The men backed off. Like a proud knight, Manning escorted the woman from the scene with a flourish, recalled two people who were there. "He carried her away," said one man who happened to be present.

A gang member convicted of murder in a Hawthorne firebombing that killed a 2-year-old boy and a 2-day-old baby and severely burned their mother was sentenced Thursday to 32 years to life in prison. Caleb Harris, 19, was not eligible for a sentence of life without the possibility of parole because he was a juvenile when the incident occurred two years ago, Deputy Dist. Atty. Val Rose said.

A Molotov cocktail that was thrown into the Department of Motor Vehicles office in San Pedro early Monday caused about $1,000 worth of damage, authorities said. No one was injured. Los Angeles police were responding to an alarm that had been set off about 1:20 a.m. when they discovered that a window on the north wall of the Gaffey Street office had been broken and a small fire was burning inside. Firefighters were called, but the fire burned out on its own.

A gang member involved in a Hawthorne firebombing that killed a 2-year-old boy and a 2-day-old baby and severely burned their mother was convicted of murder Monday, the third time he was tried for the crime. Caleb Harris, 19, who faces life without possibility of parole when he is sentenced Aug. 13, was not eligible for the death penalty because he was a juvenile when the firebombing occurred.

Police closed both directions of the Golden State Freeway for nearly two hours during rush hour Thursday afternoon after Caltrans workers discovered three suspicious-looking pipes on the southbound shoulder at Burbank Boulevard. Although the pipes were detonated by Los Angeles County arson investigators for safety, they were determined to be nonexplosive, Sheriff's Deputy Henry Garza said. "It was a dud," Burbank Officer Kerry Schilf said. Garza said the pipes, found shortly before 2 p.m.

A Lancaster man who pleaded guilty to bombing a local gay bar was sentenced to eight years and four months in state prison Friday, the Los Angeles district attorney's office said. Geoffrey Barr, 22, will probably spend about half of that time in jail for the Oct. 3 attack on the Back Door Bar, according to authorities. Superior Court Judge J. Stephen Czuleger could have sentenced Barr to as much as 13 years.

The fuse on a pipe bomb tossed by students into a classroom at a Rowland Heights high school this week was lit, police said Friday, contradicting an earlier report. The reason no one was seriously injured was that the fuse was snuffed out by chance when it hit the floor, authorities said. Sgt.

A 70-year-old Monrovia man pleaded no contest Tuesday to charges that he exploded a pipe bomb underneath his ex-wife's unoccupied pickup truck. Charles Edwin Smith, who made his plea in Superior Court, is expected under terms of a plea bargain to be sentenced to four years in state prison for felony use of a destructive device and stalking in violation of a restraining order.

Three weeks after agreeing to a plea bargain that would have landed him in state prison for four years, Charles Edwin Smith, accused of exploding a pipe bomb under his ex-wife's unoccupied pickup truck, is reconsidering the deal. It's a decision that could cost him 20 years behind bars. "He wanted to think about withdrawing his plea, a lot of people do," said Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Smalstig. "It's called buyer's remorse, basically."

June 12, 1997 | NICHOLAS RICCARDI and RICHARD WINTON, SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Five Rowland High School students were arrested Wednesday after one tossed what he thought was a lit pipe bomb into a full classroom, only to discover that the fuse had been extinguished at the last moment by an accomplice, authorities said. A portion of the 2,400-student Rowland Heights campus was evacuated for an hour on the penultimate day of classes.

A pipe bomb that was safely deactivated after it was discovered in a Torrance neighborhood Monday night has joined the list of a growing number of bomb-related incidents in the South Bay in recent weeks. The bomb was found on a curb in the 17100 block of Crenshaw Boulevard about 9 p.m. and forced authorities to evacuate about 70 residents, said Torrance Police Lt. John Spindler. Residents were not allowed to return to their homes for two hours.